# Meriden Mall

Meriden Mall (formerly Meriden Square and Westfield Meriden) is a shopping mall located in Meriden, Connecticut. With nearly 900,000 square feet, Meriden Mall is Connecticut's seventh largest mall, housing over 140 shops. The mall features Boscov's and TJ Maxx as anchors alongside specialty retailers such as Bath and Body Works, and Torrid.

## History

The shopping complex, originally built and owned by The May Department Stores Company, opened in 1971. The original architecture was a two-level, dumbbell shaped shopping center with two anchor stores, Connecticut-based G. Fox, which was also owned by The May Company chain, and JCPenney. Original tenants also included Radio Shack, Spencer Gifts, Hickory Farms, Barricini Candy, Record World, Waldenbooks, CVS, a Singer sewing machine store, Bakers Shoes, Chess King, Child World Keyboard, a piano and organ store, a travel agency, Mall Liquor's,and C. B. Perkins tobacco store. The only restaurant in the main part of the mall was a Friendly's Ice Cream parlor and restaurant, though both JCPenney and G. Fox had in-house restaurants. The mall also featured an incline ramp-escalator in the center court.
A 1993 renovation added a two-level wing anchored by a new Sears department store and included a new food court, creating a T-shaped floor plan. Also in 1993, G. Fox parent, May Company, acquired Boston-based Filene's and merged the two department stores together under Filene's, thusly Meriden Mall's G. Fox was rebranded as Filene's.
The Westfield Group acquired the mall in 1997.
The mall was expanded again in an ambitious renovation announced in 1997. The renovation saw an extra floor area of 147,425 sq ft (13,696.2 m$^2$) added to the center, with an additional 30 stores, creating a cross-shaped floor plan. The new anchor, built opposite Sears, was upscale department store Lord & Taylor, the centerpiece of the $38 million revitalization and expansion plan. In addition to its new anchor, a multistory parking garage was built adjacent to Sears facing Lewis Avenue. The renovation was completed in 1999.
In 2005, Lord & Taylor shuttered their location due to repositioning. Westfield quickly moved to replace the vacancy with Dick's Sporting Goods.
During 2006, Filene's announced all locations would rebrand as Macy's, including Meriden.
In 2014, Boscov's was announced as a replacement for JCPenney with an expanded and completely remodeled structure. The location was Boscov's first in Connecticut as well as the New England region. Boscov's opened in November 2015.
The dawn of the 2020s saw several storied traditional department store retailers change their brick-and-mortar approach after encroachment by digital retailers and in addition to the COVID pandemic.
On November 8, 2018, it was announced Sears would shutter as part of an ongoing plan to eliminate its brick-and-mortar stores.
On January 6, 2020, Macy's, which has much larger outposts in the region, announced a strategy to solely focus on their highest achieving locations, meaning they would be leaving the shopping center.
In May 2020, Namdar Realty Group purchased the mall from Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (formerly Westfield before Westfield was purchased and merged with Unibail-Rodamco out of Europe) and began operations as owners on June 1st, 2020.
On September 21, 2021, Best Buy announced they would shutter their store along with several additional locations as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Numerous replacement tenants for each space are reportedly in the midst of early discussions.
On October 4, 2021, Yale New Haven Health bought the previous Macy's outpost and is set to raze the building and develop it into a prominent retail health center.
On February 16, 2024, it was announced that Forever 21 Red would be permanently closing by March 31, 2024.
On March 20, 2024, it was announced that Dick's Sporting Goods would be closing by April 20, 2024. This will leave Boscov's and TJ Maxx as remaining anchors.